Humanizing North Korea

If you’re paying attention to the Olympics then you have probably heard about Kim Yo Jong. She is a North Korean who is attending the Winter Olympics in South Korea. She is the first member of the Kim family to visit South Korea since the Korean War. The implications of this are incredible. Diplomacy on the Korean peninsula is sadly overdue and it’s good to see the two countries making an effort.

The two Korean countries are participating in the Olympics under one unified flag and that is another good sign as far as relations in that region go.

Unification flag of Korea

I can’t speak to any details about Kim Yo Jong herself besides the propaganda that is spouted by those who would have another war on that peninsula, so I will withhold judgment on her personally. I am fully aware of the nature of the totalitarian government that exists in North Korea. I refuse to demonize every person from that country and doom them to a second war so that some politician may scream:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;

Real people live there. I don’t hate these people. No one should hate these people and the work of focusing our world on a more peaceful future started this week out of the view of D.C. or Moscow.

None of us want war, yet peace is seen as a naivete, well perhaps we should try it first. Belligerent boisterous political leaders use war to consolidate power in times of personal scandal or economic crisis. They see sending young people off to die as an appropriate distraction to cover their failings.

No more. We must stand up and say no more.

We must remember the damage that invading Iraq has caused the world and us as a nation. We must remember how consent was manufactured for the Iraq war by the administration of George W. Bush through intelligence agencies to the mainstream media and the American populace.

North Korea needs diplomacy, not death rained down on them from above like fire and fury. We must focus the fire and fury of our souls on building a better world for our children, not sending them off to war to die.

Perhaps it’s time to wage a war for our veterans health as a recently released report shows that the ‘Suicide rate for Montana veterans still among highest.’